Monday, July 24, 2006

Ripping Friends Satire

Ripping Friends had a sequence in each episode called "Rip Along With The Ripping Friends".

It was a segment meant to serve 2 purposes:

1) TO RE-USE STOCK ANIMATION AND SAVE A FEW BUCKS-like in 60s/70s Hanna Barbera and Filmation cartoons-the show was a very low budget so I thought this would be a good way to save some money for a few minutes that could be used to put more animation in the main story.It didn't work though because the studios we subcontracted to kept redrawing the same drawings over and over again, even though I told them it was OK not to waste their (and my) money.

2) TO DO SOME SATIRE IN DEFENSE OF KIDS' NEEDS- This need was well satisfied despite some very bland drawings that were beyond Spumco's control.The idea of the "Rip-Alongs" was to have the stars of the show take letters from kids who the corporate world or anybody else was doing bad things to, and RIP them to shreds.

So the Ripping Friends would rip bullies, corporations that ruined fun for kids by taking the violence out of cartoons and replacing it with morals, Cereal companies that stopped putting prizes in cereal, Home video and game compainies that design retarded controls and unitelligible manuals, etc.

This particular Rip Along was designed to force Hot Dog companies to get in synch with Bun manufacturers so that we didn't have to throw out 4 weiners for every bun pack we opened.

If only they had listened!

By the way, the evil networks made us cut out the funniest scene. (As always!) Maybe that's why the hotdog companies didn't respond.

I'm going to try to restore it in time for the San Francisco show on July 28, 29.

34 comments:

john, you have got to get all these cartoons back on air or on dvd or something! Also, after the best hotdog scene has been shown at the San Frasisco show, do you think you could post it on your blog for those who can't make it (like me)?

Watch out, a small barrage of seemingly unrelated comments a-comin'...1.)Hey is Pidgeon working on Rataouille with Bird?2.)Yes, Smigel writing for George Liquor, American, good idea. I'd have thought you'd met or knew Smigel already, just meeting him now at Comicon ...that's unbelievable!3.)Did you dedicate that hot dog scene to Stephen Worth? Wee-oooo, that is funny!4.)You made the convention sound a whole lot more interesting than NPR. They spent the segment talking about aguy who wrote a comic book called Super Natural Law? Jeez Lou-eeze, you and Smigel are there and the media spend the entire time talkin to a dude about his lame comic book premise?4.)While playing with pitch control feature in Quicktime as "A Coy Decoy" is running, I lessen the pitch in Daffy's voice - holy crap, it's Sylvester's voice. And Porky's voice is Sylvester's, too! My gosh, how many of Mel's character voices were due to pitch control? Nevertheless, the guy is a great comedic actor and a fine singer, Leon shoulda' tripled Mel's salary.

Huzzah! At last my stock car needs can be satisfied right here. This blog has it all!

Anyway...

They spent the segment talking about a guy who wrote a comic book called Super Natural Law?

Aw, give the poor guy a break! He's an old friend of mine and a really nice guy (much, much funnier in person than you'd think, based on that particular strip), and he's from Brooklyn, too. Escaping from Brooklyn is a huge mitigating factor.

That clip reminded me of why I didn't find this show all too funny. Shame really, I wanted to like it, 'cause I love your cartoons, but Ripping Friends just never really did it for me. The weak drawings might of been a small factor, but the main problem was that it lacked laugh-out-loud moments.

This is the first time I watch some part of this show. It was ok, but it's not really exciting for me. But it is kinda original and I find some of the reactions from the characters funny as well as the designs. It almost seems like a writer driven cartoon (he, I'm mean)...actually I don't dislike all writer driven cartoons.

The episode about 'boring cereal prizes' was great. Although I do not know the formal reason for the demise of toys in cereals, I think your conclusion is probably correct (overprotective, overzealous parent syndrome). If only Jay Ward (Rocky & Bullwinkle Show) was around to lead the fight to make breakfast cereals fun again.

For me the funniest and most dodgy line on RP was in the "Ovulator" episode, when Rip--seated on a cloud over the villain's head--says, "He don't know that the jig is up." My brother and I looked at each other like "Holy shit, I don't believe they said that on a kid's show", then fell out of our chairs laughing. See, "jig" is another word for a black person, and Slab is a man of color....

Also, watch Ralph Bakshi's work on the 1967 SPIDER-MAM series, and tell me that Mysterio's bubble-head, with the vertical line down the center of it, doesn't look suspiciously like a talking vag....